Heed Message Of Primary Voters

March 19, 1992

Primary voters in Illinois and Michigan Tuesday brought into sharper focus the faces and issues that will define the American agenda in the presidential election year of 1992.

As their Sun Belt counterparts had done a week earlier, voters in the Rust Belt provided additional momentum to the campaigns of Republican President George Bush and his leading Democratic challenger, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

But the electorate also delivered some important messages that seem certain to shape the remainder of the primary season and the contest to come.

Republican rejection of Patrick Buchanan`s narrow and mean-spirited campaign has reduced the far-right`s favorite TV personality to the role of quixotic scold. Buchanan threatens to slog on to the June 2 California primary, 2, but he now appears to be angling mainly for a place on the speaker`s platform at Houston from which to launch a conservative crusade in 1996.

For the Democrats, the Midwest primaries gave a major boost to Clinton`s image as a centrist coalition-builder with an economic pitch that just might lure back wayward ``Reagan-Bush Democrats.``

Illinois and Michigan proved again that former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas does not play well on the road and may be nearing the end of his bid unless he can rebound in Connecticut and New York. Meanwhile, former California Gov. Jerry Brown seems to be emerging as the Democratic Buchanan -- a gadfly with a strong appeal to the disaffected 25 percent of his party.

The presidential race received the major headlines, but Tuesday`s most significant trend could be found in the results of some key congressional primaries.

In Illinois, three incumbent Democrats were dumped by voters, lending weight to the growing perception that a strong anti-Washington tide is sweeping the nation. Sen. Alan Dixon was upset by Carol Moseley Braun, Cook County recorder of deeds and Chicago`s highest-ranking black official. Dixon had been targeted by women voters for his support of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last fall.

Two long-term black congressmen from the Chicago area, Gus Savage and Charles Hayes, also were sidelined. Savage, whose tenure has been marred by racist rhetoric, fiscal irregularities and allegations of sexual misconduct, was trounced by Mel Reynolds, who had been wounded in a drive-by shooting a few days before the election. Hayes, who was identified last week as one of the top 24 check-bouncers in the House of Representatives, fell to a former Black Panther named Bobby Rush.

The implicit warning to incumbents couldn`t be more clear or more ominous: the voters are extremely restless out there and you`d better acquire some humility, candor and integrity quickly if you hope to return to Capitol Hill.